Father Figure
by Glaivester
Summary: Third in the Essex Plan Series. Kurt's father is a Nazi war criminal. Introducing Marvel's greatest Golden Age Villain to the XME universe. Story COMPLETE.
1. The Escape

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FATHER FIGURE 

by Glaivester

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it. 

Quick notes: This is the third entry in "The Sinister Series," the first being "The Essex Plan" and the second being "The Apocalypse Effect." It would be best to read these prior to reading this story.

This is rated PG-13. The backstory in this fic diverges in some ways from any continuity I have seen. I am aware that the comicverse has given Kurt a possible father who is an incubus, but I like my idea better, so I'm going with it! 

Be warned: the main antagonist (bad guy) of the story is a Nazi, and there will be discussion of issues such as the Holocaust, etc. The opinions of some of the characters (mostly the bad guys) may offend some people, but I think that they are in accordance with each character's personality. Basically, expect some of the bad guys to speak in favor of genocide. There may be minor discussion of political issues, but for the most part, I avoid pushing any political view, although some characters have a definite political view. 

The main theme of this story is to explore different kinds of bigotry, different motivations for similar actions, different strategies for similar goals, and most of all to point out that bigotry is a universal problem, and that anyone from any race, color, creed, etc., can be bigoted against someone.

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Chapter 1 The Escape

Journal of Nick Fury:

Today it happened. One of the greatest evil minds of the twentieth century has escaped. And maybe the greatest evil mind of this century as well. When we found out about En Sabah Nur, we knew we had to let out Trask. Particularly after it was confirmed that his people caused all that devastation in the rain forest. He could easily level a town in under ten minutes. Hell, he could level New York City in an hour. Damn it, but we may need Sentinels to protect us from the mutants that are coming. Xavier is nice, but he doesn't get it. Mutant rights and all, I'm all for it. But mutants are weapons too. We need anti-mutant devices to stop mutants who work for foreign governments. Does anyone really believe that the Chinese aren't developing mutant super-soldiers right now? Idiots like Trask want to foment war between mutants and humans [A/N Nick Fury is no scientist, or he would've used the term "wild type" to denote non-mutants], but we need them to protect the good ol' US of A from the Red Chinese, the Arab jihadists, and all those other assorted loonies out to get us. Good Lord. If one of Osama's people were to get a power like Scott Summers', he wouldn't need a plane to cause 9/11. 

Xavier and Magneto been planning their ideological wars for so long that they have forgotten that there is a whole other world out there. It's not just humans vs. mutants, it's the Americans vs. the Red Chinese, the Arabs vs. the Israelis, the IRA against the Ulsterites [A/N aka Irish Protestants]. Racial prejudice hasn't stopped, ethnic and cultural hatreds did not just go away to make room for the mutant vs. human conflict. For some people, mutants are just tools. Truth be told, some in my government probably want to use them as tools as well. Their eyes lit up when the idea of soldiers who were complete arsenals in themselves was brought up. Why, a natural solution that would be better than Project Rebirth! But then we realized that the enemy had mutants, too. And so the pressure began to use Trask and then to throw him away. And with this nutty quintamillennial mutant suddenly appearing and created an impenetrable base in Mexico, it's been decided that we need this technology, regardless of the fact that the one who found it is insane. No, that's not accurate. He is evil.

It's always been like this. We helped the Soviets take over half of Europe in order to oust Hitler. Then we took in Nazi scientists to help us defeat the Soviets. I, Nick Fury, one of the people who dedicated years of my life to bringing Hitler down, agreed to help rescue Nazis from the Soviets in hopes we could use them.

Of course, I can't complain. A Nazi formula is, after all, how I have managed to maintain my youth for so long. Or at least to maintain my middle age. I am in my eighties, but I look like a forty-five year old.

Which brings me back to my point. When we found out about En Sabah Nur, we knew we had to let out Trask. But that wasn't enough. "Bring out the big guns," they said. So we did. Took him out of stasis for the first time in eighteen years. But this time, he escaped. God help me, I don't know how, but he escaped. A Nazi war criminal. Kept in stasis by the same method as we kept Captain America. And with his gonads enhanced, so that all of his sperm produce mutant babies.

Well, at least we still have track of Trask. And we got a few helpful notes from the Nazi, so it wasn't a total waste. But by letting him escape, we have unleashed such evil on the world... such evil...

The week of Thanksgiving:

Mystique was running. Terrified.

It was he. The only man in the world whom she truly feared, whom she did not have the strength or courage to mock.

Kurt's father.

Some thought that Kurt's father had been a demon, but he had not. Well, maybe he was, in a metaphorical sense.

A Nazi. Not a neo-Nazi, but a World War II-era, _bona fide_ "I served under Hitler" Nazi. Not just any Nazi, either, but Hitler's very own protege.

Eighteen years and some odd months earlier, she had met him when she had been working a mission for SHIELD. He had information, technology that she had wanted, and she had slept with him for it. But he had somehow tricked her. She had been very careful, but she had gotten pregnant nonetheless. 

She might have had an abortion, but after some special genetic screening by Magneto to make certain it was mutant, she decided to keep it. (If she had not been on bad terms with Magneto on her second pregnancy, she would probably have had testing done then as well, and so would have aborted Graydon). The world needed more mutants. And then Magneto had claimed the baby. He had insisted that he be allowed to do genetic experiments on it. He had controlled Mystique into letting him try to modify her baby.

Running from Magneto, she had lost her son. Dropped him in a river, where he was picked up by Gypsies. Gypsies. She occasionally smiled at the idea of what Kurt's father would say if he knew his son had been raised by he would have referred to as a "filthy race of filthy people." If they had been Jewish Gypsies, well, he'd have keeled over on the spot. Oh well, they were Catholic, and the Nazis weren't that friendly to Catholics either, so perhaps God or Fate had a sense of humor in destroying the best-laid plans of evil despots and despot-wannabes. In any case, the father had been refrozen into suspended animation less than a year after Kurt's birth, so Mystique gradually forgot about him.

But now he caught up with her. He had friends who had helped him. A large, strong, and fast mutant named Valkyrie [A/N original character]. She caught Mystique and held her down as he approached her.

"Don't worry," said Kurt's father, in a perfect American accent. He could master any accent, and was very good at disguising himself so as to conceal his identity. "I won't hurt you. Your skin may be a different color, but by your heritage you are still a fine specimen of German womanhood. Same with your son. Pity he was polluted by those Gypsy foster parents. I hear he has a child by another Gypsy! And there is a rumor that he actually had a crush on a Jewish girl, and is now dating a girl who is three-quarters black. Tut, tut, Raven. You have not looked after my seed."

"Go to Hell!"

"What do you think suspended animation is? A dark, cold dreamless sleep. I have seen Hell, Raven, and I do not intend to go back."

"What do you want?" Mystique was sobbing now.

"You. You, my dear. You are the best way for me to get to our son. To show him the error of his ways, and to begin the process of wiping out the filthy races and subjugating the merely inferior ones. Beginning with their mutants. It's a shame that all mutants are not Aryans, don't you think? We'll have to deal with that. Lesser races do not deserve them. We'll just have to deal with that, won't we?"

"What do you want with me?"

"Why, my dear. To control your mind, of course. And to lure Kurt into my clutches. When the new Nazi empire emerges, I shall need an heir. And possibly, I will give you more sons and daughters. You are, after all, only forty. And moreover, you have a metabolism that allows you to have children much later in life than a normal human. Sixty or seventy at least, my dear, or so we estimate."

"I'm too powerful to be controlled!"

"Not if we find a mutant with a powerful enough mind. Or if I have a powerful enough mind-control device. Sorry, my dear. I will control you."

"They'll stop you! The X-Men will stop you!"

"No one, and no thing, can stop THE RED SKULL!"


	2. History Lesson

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Chapter 2 History Lesson

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it. 

[A/N I rewrite some of the World War II Marvel continuity here]. 

Logan looked rather anxious when he walked into the kitchen at breakfast. "The Red Skull... the Red Skull. Oh, Hell."

"What is it, Logan?" asked Kitty.

"Half-Pint, it's the worst news since Sinister released Apocalypse. Johann Schmidt has escaped from SHIELD. Fury called to tell me."

"So?"

"Have you ever heard the rumors of a secret Nazi mastermind groomed to be Hitler's protege?"

"Sure, on the internet. And I, like, heard that the US government kept him on ice, to help us in, like, defeating the Communists. But I never paid it any mind. Just another stupid rumor, like Hitler still being alive and talking with, like, aliens about who to endorse for president."

"Sorry, Half-Pint, but the tabloids got this one right."

"And this Johann Schmidt is the guy?"

"The Red Skull."

"Okay, but it's not so bad, is it? He's a political mastermind, but it's not like he's a mutant or Spider-Man or something? I mean, how much can he actually do?"

"Plenty. He could create a spy network in a matter of two weeks that would make Al Qaeda look like the welcome wagon. He's a tactical and strategic genius, and he managed to absorb a great deal of technological knowledge from another Nazi, Baron Zemo. As far as I know, Baron Zemo's son is at large [A/N the son is also referred to as Baron Zemo, as it is a hereditary title], a Neo-Nazi with even greater knowledge than the Red Skull's. No doubt the Skull's first order of business will be to find him and to begin forming a terrorist organization.

Kitty looked nervously at Logan. "But they don't have any money, do they?"

"The Skull hid away a lot of money in a Swiss Bank Account. Plus he probably has other sources. He always managed to get a little private time whenever we let him out."

"But why not try him and hang him? Like, he totally deserved it!"

"Because he had knowledge we needed. That we wanted to get before the Soviets did."

"But he was a Nazi!"

"And Stalin was a mass-murdering lunatic, but that didn't stop us from allying with him when Hitler posed the bigger threat. After Germany fell, Nazism became irrelevant. It was deemed more important to deal with current problems than to seek redress for past ones."

"Still..."

"If it makes you feel any better, the Red Skull was instrumental in coordinating a covert assassination of Stalin. There is a possibility that Stalin would have started his own Holocaust against the Jews as well as starting a third world war if he had survived."

"Hmm..."

"In any case, what's done is done. We can't undo Nazism, World War II, or Communism and the Cold War. In the here and now, he's out, and we need to stop him."

"Is that really his face?" Kitty had been typing on her laptop and had gone to an internet website specializing in World War II conspiracy theories.

Logan looked at the image on the screen. "Yep, Half-Pint, that's what he looks like. At first it was a mask, but he used some special chemicals to alter his face permanently."

"So are we supposed to deal with it."

"Not per se, but Fury thinks the Skull has mutant allies. He wondered if we could help S.H.I.E.L.D. on the Q.T."

"The Skull has mutant allies? Why would mutants help a Nazi?"

"Because the Nazis never had it in for mutants. At least, the few who knew about them didn't. They thought that they could become the ubermenschen warriors that would spread the Third Reich across Europe. Of course, only Aryan mutants need apply. From what I have heard, European Jews tend to display the greatest percentage of mutants of any known ethnic group in the world, which greatly angered Hitler, that the most hated group would be the most blessed with mutation, so they did actively seek out certain mutants to destroy them. It is a good thing that so many X-genes were latent back then, and that modern DNA testing was unknown, or else there would be very few Jewish mutants alive today.

"In any case, the existence of mutants has not, apparently, destroyed old prejudices or made them irrelevant. There are Nazi mutants, mutants in the Ku Klux Klan, as well as humans with absolutely no prejudice against mutants who hate blacks or Jews or whatnot. Actually, in some ways, this is a good thing."

"That people are still prejudiced is good?"

"No, I meant that it is good that that one prejudice does not necessarily translate into another; that plenty of mutant-haters are anti-racist and that plenty of racists are not mutant-haters."

"Why?"

"Because it keeps the groups separate. I happen to know that one of the founders of the Friends of Humanity is Jewish, so there is no way that they would work with the Red Skull. Also, there is a rumor that the Red Skull had genetic alterations done to his... his male glands, so that he would produce sperm with active copies of the X-gene in it. He made certain that any kids he had would be mutants. The FOH have heard the rumor, and so even if not for the antisemitism thing, there is no way that they could accept him. 

"Also the head of the only dangerous rogue state left in Europe, the only state that could possibly shelter a man like the Red Skull, is a Gypsy [A/N another Marvel character is referred to here, can you guess which one, A/N in case anyone didn't know, Hitler tried to wipe out the Gypsies], so there is absolutely no chance that his country would help the Red Skull. In fact, I have heard that he has ordered his intelligence agents to find the guy and off him."

"Wow."

"I have more bad news. I talked to Beast about the Skull right after I had found out about his escape. Have you read this in the papers today?"

Kitty looked at the article. "Yeah, like, it's so cool! This new genetic analyzer can search your DNA for specific markers to tell you where your ancestors came from."

"Yes, Half-Pint. It can distinguish genetic markers that indicate the nationality of your ancestors, so it can tell that you are, say, between 50% and 60% German, or between 75% and 90% Spanish, or that you have ancestry from a particular ethnic group in Africa. In short, it can tell you your racial background. Apparently it could be useful for people who want to know something of their family history, so I can sympathize with people wanting something like this."

"So? How is this bad?"

"Just this morning, the chief scientist who had created it was kidnapped. Moreover, what the machine does is related to one of the Skull's long-term projects."

"Which is?"

Logan recalled the conversation with Beast. "The creation of race-specific bio-weapons. If he can create a weapon that only kills people with a certain genetic marker that is unique to a certain ethnic group, he could single-handedly cause the worst genocide the world has ever seen. Or, he could use the information to create Sentinels that could distinguish people of races he wanted to eliminate. He has the plans for the Sentinels - he stole them from Trask."

"Can you really create a disease that wipes out one race?"

"Yes and no. If he can make the disease only strike people with certain markers, it will definitely be ethnically selective. But what we think of as 'race' is really the result of reproductive isolation of populations. With the exception of a few tribes in the Indonesian islands, no ethnic group is reproductively isolated enough so that we can completely distinguish it from outsiders. In other words, there is no distinct line where one group ends and another begins, so lots of people who have one ancestor from the targeted group back two hundred years ago would be affected even though they are not considered to be part of the targeted group themselves, and alternately, someone in the targeted group who has an ancestor outside the targeted group might lack the appropriate marker and not be affected. But in general, such a weapon would definitely be selective in who it killed."

"And I would probably be a target."

"Well, yes, Kitty. You're Jewish, so you'd be his primary target."

"Great."

"Oh wait, there's one more piece of bad news."

"What?" Kitty croaked.

"Back in the eighties they unfroze the Skull to work on missile defense systems. He apparently slept with a young SHIELD agent known as Amalthea Raven."

"Doesn't ring a bell."

"Also known by the alias Raven Darkholme."

"He had an affair with Mystique?"

"More like a one-night stand. Oh, and it gets worse. He got her pregnant."

"Oh my... you mean he's..."

"Yes, Kitty, the Red Skull is Kurt's father."


	3. My Father the Nazi

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Chapter 3 My Father the Nazi

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel.

Kurt was, as would be expected, reeling. Logan had just told him the news, with Beast standing nearby, and Wanda and Talia playing in a corner of the room.

"Mein Gott! I don't know vhat mein parents vill say! My adoptive parents, I mean. Their parents - mein grandparents - lost a lot of friends to the Red Skull."

Wanda was likewise infuriated. Both her biological and her adoptive parents had been Gypsies [A/N I'm going with Magneto being a Gypsy rather than Jewish here, as Stan Lee has said that that was his intention, and as I believe that that is the canonical story, the movie notwithstanding]. In fact, Wanda had been under the impression that his experience in a concentration camp (he always referred to it as a POW camp, for some reason, the truth perhaps being too painful to admit) had scarred him for life and made him the somewhat disagreeable and sinister person that he usually was - except, of course, to her and Pietro.

"That monster is Kurt's father? He's loose? He's loose? Why couldn't he just die and leave everyone alone? We don't need this right now. Talia doesn't need a Nazi for a grandfather! Why does he have to torture his poor son?" She began to break down.

Magneto, for his part, had been ecstatic when he had been told, fifteen minutes earlier. He had always resented the fact that by the time he had gained significant control over his powers, the war was over. He also had always resented the judges at the Nuremberg trials, for simply hanging the Nazi criminals and not brutalizing them first. Now he had a chance to avenge the deaths of his family and friends personally. Wolverine, who felt he had been acting civilized a little too long, privately agreed to join Magneto in his quest. Nick Fury had wanted the Skull alive, but - well, we can't always get what we want, can we? thought Logan as he shook hands with his one-time enemy.

But Kurt still took it the hardest. Logan had to help him to his chair. "Mein Gott..." Kurt repeated. "So my father is a demon after all... metaphorically at least... and you're none of you safe! Not viz me here. He'll come for me. He'll kill Talia and Wanda and Kitty. Oh, vhy did I ever vish to know my father?"

~Logan~ came a voice. ~Have you seen Mystique in the past three hours?~

~No, Professor.~

"Hey, Elf," asked Logan to Kurt. "Have you seen Mystique?"

"Not since yesterday. Maybe she can explain why she had sex vith that monster!"

"Well, Elf, don't knock her actions too much. They produced you."

Little Talia jumped out of Wanda's arms and ran to Kurt. She was the equivalent of a four-year old now, and tended to keep her tail retracted at all times, giving her the appearance of not having one.

"Wos wong, Daddy? Wuz I bad? "

"No, Talia. No, it's not you. You're a good little girl." He smiled. The Professor had been using his telepathy to improve her ability to learn so that her mind would catch up to her body, so she could talk now like a four-year-old. "It's someone else."

Wanda scowled. "So at least I know I'm not the only one with an evil father. Of course, my father cared for me, yours, it seems, just wanted to have an heir to help him conquer the world. I mean, he must have known when he conceived you that he wasn't going to be able to be there." Wanda winced suddenly. She swore a few times, and then started crying. "Why do I always get this headache when I think of Dad?"

Beast looked at her. "The control device is almost ready. When it is, we'll tell you all about it. Just two more days."

"Okay," she sobbed.

"Meantime, Kurt, why don't you call Amanda and see if she is coming over here for dinner tomorrow," suggested Logan.

"Nein. Ve broke up."

"Why?" asked Beast. "Sorry, it's none of our business."

"Oh, it's fine. It's just that, I have responsibilities now as a father. I feel that - that I should give it a go vith Vanda. Talia needs us both, and I'm not ready to be a father of a broken home."

"Yeah, and I've practically moved in here since the Apocalypse thing," suggested Wanda.

Logan sighed. Life is a friggin' soap opera around here! he thought to himself.


	4. Essex's Reveries

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Chapter 4 Essex's Reveries

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it. 

[A/N Apocalypse and Sinister are discussing the subject of genocide in this chapter. Be warned that their opinions are somewhat offensive, but, I believe, consistent with their characterizations.]

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Responses to reviewers: 

Firefly25: Correct about Kitty. Although it's not that she thinks the Red Skull is not a big deal per se, she just doesn't see how he could be a threat without a government backing him up. And yes, the bad guy referred to is Victor von Doom. In this series I am ultimately going to incorporate a lot of Marvel characters.

Mannielf18: Talia is the daughter of Kurt and Wanda. She is about three to four months old but is growing up very rapidly due to genetic alterations by Mr. Sinister. For a more detailed account of her backstory, click on my name and then read "The Essex Plan" and "The Apocalypse Effect." She is based on a character in the comic book series "Exiles," Talia Josephine "T.J." Wagner, aka Nocturne, the daughter of Kurt and Wanda from an alternate universe. You can find out about her by typing her name into a search engine.

Witch-Uk: Glad you like it. By the way, if you're wondering, I am refraining from referring to Talia as "T.J." just yet because I plan to have it be a nickname that she gets as she gets older.

Nathaniel Essex had frowned when he had heard the news of the Red Skull's escape from his spy network. Apocalypse, for his part, just laughed. Sinister became upset at this, and the two got into a debate over the Nazis, and Hitler in particular. 

"Hitler was a fool! He wasted good genetic material," reasoned Sinister. "Instead of using the concentration camps to slaughter those who have been genetically proven inferior, he went by race! He killed large, large numbers of Jews, and Ashkenazi Jews [A/N in case you didn't know, Ashkenazi Jews means European Jews] are the ethnic group with the highest percentage of mutants! No telling how many of my possible test subjects that he threw into the garbage!

"And moreover, his wars threw the world into chaos! He kept conquering and conquering, and breaking alliances, and throwing things into a mess! Years of research and work on various families, spoilt when many of my most promising test subjects were drafted and sent to die! And his irrational obsessions - so many top scientists killed off or forced to flee. Hitler set back our cause by decades!"

"Nonsense," laughed Apocalypse. "While it was not his intention, he ultimately served his victims admirably. Weeding out the members who were too weak to survive adversity, leaving only the strong, those who can survive at any cost. All races should be so lucky as to have such a purge! He may well have been a madman, but his wars served the betterment of the human race admirably, by forcing the best and brightest to come to the front!"

"But we can accomplish our grand design quicker and easier by careful, controlled manipulation!"

"You still don't understand. Chaos breeds toughness. You will never make your master race by dint of effort and by determining the genes to give them. Only chance and adversity will burn away the chaff and leave the worthy in its wake."

"Chaos is entropy. Evolution is too slow. Without planning, it will continue to be so..." he drifted off in a reverie:

* * * * * * * *

A University in Paris, France. November 1939.

Nathaniel Essex couldn't find Professor Erskine anywhere. They had been discussing a plan to use technology to enhance a person's mind and body for several years now, and Erskine was about to begin building a prototype.

Finally he found a note. "Sorry to tell you this, but I am leaving to work with the American government. My devices may help them to build an army of super-warriors to defeat the Nazi menace. France is a hopeless case. It will be overrun in a matter of months. I am racially three-quarters Jewish, and in terms of religion am semi-observant, and cannot risk staying here if the Nazis take over. My friends Prof. Goldstein and Prof. Blum have already been spirited off to G-d-knows-where. Sincerely, Prof. Erskine [A/N Many Jews believe that it is sacrilegious to write out "God" "Lord," or other titles for God on paper that is intended to be thrown away, and so they replace one letter with a hyphen]."

A few minutes later he heard the news that Prof. Erskine had been killed. Apparently it had been hoax, and Erskine had been working for the Americans on something called "Project Rebirth" under the pseudonym Dr. Reinstein. But he was killed for real shortly thereafter by a Nazi spy, preventing him from correcting the side-effects of his method, the ones that doomed Steve Rogers to cryogenic stasis immediately after the end of World War II.

* * * * * * * * 

A concentration camp, in 1944.

Essex, disguised as a Nazi officer, walked over to the group of children in the camp. They were to be killed in an hour. He had to save one of them. One of them who was a mutant, a powerful one. Perhaps to be one of the most powerful mutants alive.

"Boy!" he hollered. "To my personal room! I need someone to shine my boots."

Once inside, he instructed the boy, "Now shut up and stay hidden under the bed until I tell you to come out. There is a chamber pot in here if you need it."

And so it had remained until the boy had been rescued from the camp by an American and a Canadian. [A/N I am referring to the events in the episode "Rebirth" here. I am assuming that Steve Rogers was put in stasis around 1944, a week or so after this incident].

"Go, now!" hissed the guard to the boy when the camp was broken into.

"What if I get shot?"

"I'll make certain you are protected." The guard's face suddenly went all white, with a diamond in the forehead, and his teeth extended into fangs. "You must have noticed your developing ability to sense metal. Some day you will be able to manipulate it with your mind to a tremendous degree. When you do, I will come calling and ask for your assistance for the mercy I have shown you."

The young man nodded.

"My name is Essex. Nathaniel Essex. I never caught yours?"

"Lensherr. Eric Magnus Lensherr."

* * * * * * * *

1949, at an old building full of records.

"Samuel Gallblum, Jewish. Was developing the ability to mentally control all manner of birds. Chashka Nicotikos, Gypsy. Could increase other's powers by touching them. Ichabod Finkel, Jewish. Ability to make matter disappear at a touch. All dead. Killed because they weren't 'Aryan.' But they were superior over 99.9% of Hitler's so-called 'Master Race!' What a stupid, stupid, waste."

Nathaniel Essex walked down the corridors. He supposed he had to admire the Nazis in a way. Their vision was similar to his, and they pursued it ruthlessly and efficiently. Yet, their basis for determining who lived and died was irrational. And their impatience and desire for conquest caused their downfall. 

Now eugenics, previously a respected idea for directing society, was a dirty word. No longer could Essex hope to work within the system by encouraging the best and the brightest to have plentiful children while the rest were discouraged from doing so or forcibly sterilized. If anyone suggested such things, they would be accused of trying to commit genocide. And so, ironically enough, the only way to achieve his vision of improving humanity would be to do just that. To kill those who stood in his way or who were inferior and to be ruthless in doing so, so as to prevent those of lesser vision from stopping him.

* * * * * * * *

"He could spoil my plans." Sinister began to seethe.

"They deserve to be spoilt. I gave you immortality so to be my herald into the world, and you repaid me by perverting my vision. But the good thing is, my vision will come to pass anyway. You are unleashing forces which you will not be able to control."

Sinister stared at Apocalypse. "My warriors will soon enough be sent on their first mission. Don't you worry about that!"

Apocalypse laughed. "They are agents of chaos. How a control freak like you can use them I cannot fathom."

"I plan to start a war between countries. A mutant war. In the meantime, I will continue to add to my menagerie in order to have more supermutants to populate my new world. The first three races have already been planned. They will be the aristocracy of my society. Now to create the diverse other populations that will rule this planet, and which will, in due time, spread out to conquer the universe."

"But a war will cause chaos." Apocalypse smiled. He shifted his Pharoah-like headgear and noted to himself that he needed to use the eye to enhance himself before too long, the same way that he had enhanced the Nasty Boys.

"Not if the war starts an arms race to build better mutants. I plan to offer my services to both sides, and by the time I am done, I will have more supermutants than you can shake a stick at. At the same time, I will manipulate the war so as to eliminate as many wild-types as possible - excepting of course those worthy of modification like myself - and when they start sending me mutant to enhance, will arrange to kill those mutants who are not worthy of enhancement."

"Biding your time."

"I am nearly ready. The technology of the Eye is a great boon."

Apocalypse thought to himself. "Sinister's plan will fail, and chaos will rule. But there is no harm in speeding the chaos up a bit." He let his telepathy stretch out to his agents throughout the world.

~Mystique. Bring Schmidt to me.~


	5. Skullduggery

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Chapter 5 Skullduggery

[A/N There is some discussion of Nazi philosophy in this chapter between the Red Skull and Mystique].

Mystique shivered. Before Talia had been born, she had been investigating the one known as En Sabah Nur. First, she had seen him as a potential ally who would help her to move out from Magneto's shadow. Then, she had seen a counterweight to whatever force had bred her son with Magneto's daughter. As she had learned more about Sinister, she thought that Apocalypse might be able to fight him.

She had contacted Mesmero. She had even offered to help to free Apocalypse. She had allowed Mesmero to "initiate" her into Apocalypse's circle by forming a mental link between her and his master that would allow her to have mental contact directly with Apocalypse.

But Mesmero had waited, and her misgivings grew. Upon seeing Sinister in the flesh when he had taken her granddaughter, she decided that anyone who could have been involved in making Sinister who he was could not be trusted. (She had discovered by this time that Sinister's origin had something to do with Apocalypse).

When Mesmero approached her mentally, she had just blocked him out. When Apocalypse had directly tried to contact her, she had sung verses in her head until he went away. So Mesmero used Rogue to absorb her powers in order to open the door instead. And Mystique discovered that Mesmero had been working for Sinister all along. So helping to free Apocalypse would never have brought a counterweight to Sinister, it would only have strengthened him.

But now she was weak, and Apocalypse was at full strength.

She heard his command, and felt compelled to obey it. 

~Bring him to me.~

~Who?~

~The Red Skull. Nazism is a foolish but useful ideology. I will use him to achieve my ends.~

~How?~

~Quiet, slave. My plans do not concern you.~

For his part, the Skull was chatting with "Zimalover" on the internet. Apparently he believed that this was a code name for Baron Zemo II. Valkyrie was standing guard at the barred room in which Mystique was being held. It had nullifiers that prevented the shapeshifter from using her power, but Valkyrie was apparently immune to the effect.

Valkyrie's powers appeared to be great strength and immunity to harm. She was amusing herself by drinking deadly poisons, and she had also shown Mystique a huge number of fresh bullet wounds in her abdomen. They were healing slowly, but they had clotted quickly and appeared to cause no pain.

Meanwhile, in the cell next to her languished Dr. Chamberlain [A/N original character]. He had been visited every fifteen minutes or so by a large black man who was obviously a native African. Mystique was unsurprised at the fact that the Skull was willing to use people from what he would have considered "inferior races" as allies. After all, the Germans had allied with the Japanese when it was in their interests.

Suddenly the Skull spoke to the black man.

"So, Upload, do you have what we need?"

"I have more. I will continue typing the information until it fades again, and then I will go back for more."

"How long?"

"In twenty-four hours I will have enough information for Baron Zemo to rebuild Dr. Chamberlain's device. Once that is done, it should be relatively simple to incorporate the proper marker recognition into viruses or bacteria."

"Well then, go on typing, then."

Upload walked over to another computer terminal and began typing like mad.

"So," asked Mystique of the Red Skull, "what is he getting out of this?"

"Hmmm..." the Red Skull looked at her. "Do you know what I am working on?"

"From what I know of you, and from what I know of this man's work, you're working on race-specific bioweapons."

"Precisely. And this man here, Mbakama Leboko, is an advisor to the President of Galothswo [A/N made-up country]."

"Galothswo? Isn't that where the recent massacres of Luseths by Wuchukus [A/N fictional] occurred?"

"Exactly. But other African nations intervened, and the US, through the UN, threatened to send peacekeepers in to mediate, and so at least 75% of the Luseths survived."

"So you promised Mr. Mbakama [A/N in many African countries, the first name is the family name] here that you would let him use this technology to create a plague that would wipe the Luseths out once and for all?"

"Exactly. People who don't understand race don't understand that different races can never coexist in the same space. At least, not unless the inferior ones know their place. And race isn't just macro-race. It extends to nation and tribe. And so, Africans of one tribe, clan, nation, or whatever, will kill those of other tribes, nations, whatever, unless the strongest ones can wipe out their competitors once and for all. I have no desire to take over Africa, or most of Asia aside from the Soviet Union - excuse me, the former Soviet Union. But I do want people of a similar mindset ruling there. The Aryans are of course the master race, but other continents may have races that are - superior to the others on that continent. In any case, the Wuchukus are definitely the ones I want ruling central Africa, and if they can take it, the rest of Africa as well. If not, I'll find other tribes."

"And do you want to rule the US?"

"Yes. It is primarily European, and besides they are a thorn in my side. If for no other reason, we must take America so that they cannot stop us from taking Europe."

"I suppose," Mystique indicated Upload, "that Mr. Mbakama here is a telepath of some sort?"

"He is able to duplicate another person's mind for a few minutes by touching them, which he calls 'uploading.' In that time he can write down whatever he knows until the 'upload' wears off, and then he can do it again and again, until he has written down what he needs."

"Any other allies?"

"Not that I care to show to you."

~Slave!~ Mystique winced at the mental attack.

~What, master?~

~Let Upload duplicate _your_ mind. Then I will be able to command him.~

"Well, Mystique. I'm just about ready to use you as bait." laughed the Red Skull.

Mystique frowned. Her head was pounding. She had to escape two of the most evil people in the world, physically escape the Red Skull, and mentally escape from Apocalypse.


	6. Discovery

****

Chapter 6 Discovery

The necklace was fitted over Wanda's neck. Only Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr were with her.

"Now Wanda, try to use your powers," said the Professor.

Wanda tried. Nothing. She began to get angry. Still nothing.

"I think," said Xavier, "we can tell her now."

"Wanda," whispered Magneto. "I am not the father you think I am."

"I'm not your daughter?" asked Wanda.

"You are my daughter. What I mean is that I haven't been much of a father."

"What are you saying?" Wanda began to get angry.

"Wanda, when you were little, your powers emerged. They were out of control. I did not have the time or the will to find someone to help you learn control. So I put you in a mental hospital. I... I should have checked on you occasionally. Tried to get you help so that you would be able to get out earlier, or not locked you away at all. I also should have looked after you and your brother more even before that, rather than visiting you occasionally while letting a friend of the family take care of you and letting you take his name."

"You! You bas-"

Charles winced as Wanda tried to strangle her father. Her hatred was so strong that he nearly fainted from its presence. He couldn't even get her to calm down, her brain was on such fire.

Just then Kurt 'ported in, with Talia on his shoulders. "Sorry to interrupt, but - Wanda! Don't! Please! Think of Talia!"

Wanda released her father's neck. He hadn't even tried to fight back. He was sobbing.

"Forgive me, daughter. It will work out. I promise."

Wanda couldn't stand it. "Who did this to me? Who made me think that you were anything but a monster?"

"Mastermind. I told him to. I... I had to stop you, you were becoming a liability. I... I didn't think in personal terms. Please, please..."

Kurt looked at Wanda and at her father. "For now, let's concentrate on the problems at hand, ja? And anyway, at least your father isn't a Nazi."

Wanda looked at Kurt. "So he hates wild-types instead of Jews and Gypsies? Oh, so his bigotry is _different _from your dad's, and it makes it okay? And I am supposed to be thankful that he put me in torture for God knows how long because at least it wasn't a death camp? I'm sorry Kurt, but 'not a Nazi' is rather faint praise. It's the least someone should expect. If that's all you ask for in a parent, is that they're _not a Nazi_, then you have really, really, low expectations."

"Ja, vell, at least you get zose low expectations. I don't even get them," Kurt started to cry. "How do I tell mein adoptive parents that my biological father tried to kill their kind? Vanted to take over for Hitler? Listen, Vanda, your father at least repents. My father vill probably be vhat he is until the day he dies."

"I can find and restore your memories, Wanda," whispered Professor X. "That will help you to deal with them."

Wanda completely broke down. "I'm glad you got this necklace to work for me. Otherwise, I'd have probably brought the house down."

Talia was shaking in fear. "What's wrong with Mommy?"

"Mommy is a little... upset right now. Listen, Talia, I'll take you back to your room, if you feel like it. You shouldn't have had to see this."

"I can go with you, Daddy. I don't feel so sick now."

Talia was slowly getting used to the sensation of passive teleportation. Most people found it an exhausting or sickening experience, which allowed Kurt to teleport others around as a means of fighting them. Usually after three or four 'ports, they would be unconscious or at least disoriented. Except, of course, for some like Juggernaut, who were almost impossible to teleport and who seemed to be unaffected when they were teleported. Talia had been as queasy as most at first, but she was fascinated so much by teleportation that she begged Kurt until he teleported with her anyway. Slowly it appeared that she was getting used to the sensation, so Kurt was getting more and more comfortable with using his power to transport his daughter places.

Kurt sighed as he thought of Wanda's new knowledge, of his own father, and of his missing mother. Tomorrow would be Thanksgiving, but apparently not a lot of people would be feeling very thankful.

* * * * * * * * 

Meanwhile, in a small town between Bayville and New York City, the FOH were having their meeting.

"Now the mutant menace has reached a critical point!" thundered the speaker. "We have received word that Trask has finally been freed in order to help the government to counteract it! But the government's work is never enough! We must take it to the streets to capture each and every one of these evil abominations! For all we know, they are all working with that Satan's spawn that created that orb in Mexico!

"And," he continued, "there are rumors that the one who engineered his release is not a mutant at all, but rather a human who was altered by a mutant! I think it is time that we realized that mutants are not THE menace, they are a part of the menace. The real menace is all superpowered beings! And today we are bringing here a new ally to help us in our fight!"

A small bespectacled man stepped up to the podium. "I believe that I am about to perfect a drug that will temporarily rob mutants of their powers. It should also work on most other beings whose powers are the result of biology. As I understand it, though, so-called superbeings whose powers are purely technological, such as this new cyborg whom Tony Stark has hired as a bodyguard, are not a target of FOH anyway, so this drug will affect most of the people whom you are actually going to go after."

"That is right," continued the first speaker. Cybernetic suits and what-not do not alter a person's humanity, and we may need to use these at some point in our fight. But alterations of genetic structure are dangerous. And so they must be stopped. Both the X-gene and the G-gene must be eradicated from the planet! [A/N the "G" gene is sort of a creation of mine, but it is based on the comic continuity. More on it later]. This drug is a more refined version of the chemicals that caused Power8 to be poisonous to mutants. It can be injected via needle or even slipped into someone's food very unobtrusively. We are working on weaponizing it for use as a spray."

"Charles Overton," in reality J. Jonah Jameson, listened with great interest. Not only was this a great story, but he might have found a way to defeat Spider-Man! However, he began to get worried. He wanted the web-slinger caught, not killed. He also wanted him to receive a fair trial in court. The idea of a lynch mob catching him was painful, and if Jameson had anything to do with helping such an act, well, he would not be able to live with himself.

Outside, an attractive blonde woman in a curve-fitting white leotard listened intently. She slowly created glowing bolts of light with her fingers, raised them to her right eye, which had a sort of silver tattoo-like ring around it, and then reabsorbed them. She heard a noise and turned towards it.

"Hello, Tyrone," she said, brightening her demeanor.

"Tandy."

"Teleporting behind me again?"

"You need me now. I can sense it. Your psionic energy is getting too strong, as is my hunger. You need a drain."

"Okay." She let the strange man behind her engulf her. He nearly disappeared into the night, his appearance being so dark as to fade into dim light even better than Nightcrawler. Then he disappeared for real, teleporting himself and the woman into an empty alleyway.

The woman spoke first. "I found him. Dr. Malloy [A/N original character, the bespectacled man. He is not Colonel Wraith, he is designed to look like a mad doctor from a 1954 Sub-Mariner comic]. He is trying to use the drugs he developed again. Trying to use them to destroy mutants."

"It's not enough that he is one of the ones poisoning the children." The man frowned, although only his female companion would have been able to detect it. "He wants to use it to kill an entire race of people." [A/N his words, not mine. Technically, mutants do not constitute a race, as mutants are scattered mostly randomly around the world -although some groups have more mutants than others - and as most mutants arise from the general population. The term "race" refers to a group of humans who share multiple ancestors that people outside the group do not and who mostly breed with each other, or in Steve Sailer's terms, a partially inbred extended family].

"So Tyrone, we have to kill him?"

"Yes. Like all drug dealers, he must die."

Meanwhile, Peter Parker and Jameson were listening to the harangues of the next in the series of speakers. Jameson, who had a reputation for being in his office most of the time, had had to make a lot of excuses for his recent absences from the office for one or two days at a time. Parker less so, although people did notice him missing classes. Actually, a few members of the FOH had pulled some strings to get his absences to be overlooked.

Graydon Creed for his part was torn. He had a juicy bit of information that he was withholding from his new friends. He knew that one known mutant, Kurt Wagner, was physically grossly deformed, and that he had a daughter with similar deformities. But he couldn't bring himself to rat out his half-brother or his half-niece. He hated them for what they were, but in his heart he questioned whether or not he should make certain that those two were spared from being killed in the holocaust to come.

And they went on with their petty concerns, unaware of the role that their bigotry was to play in the master plan of one of the most powerful mutants, if not the most powerful mutant, alive.

For Apocalypse loved bigotry. Hatred. Racism. Anything that pitted humans against each other in a test of survival, he relished. To him, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, the gulags, countless war zones, were simply proving grounds for the superior. They would find a way to live while the inferior would be too lazy or stupid to save themselves and/or their friends. He actually felt that Nazism was a boon to the persecuted groups, as it forced them to be more resourceful. To the extent that resourcefulness was genetic, those with lazy or stupid genes would be killed so as not to infect the succeeding generation, and thus the best genes would be those that would dominate in the end.

Apocalypse saw nature as the only means of determining which genes would produce the best humans. No test could tell whether one person was better than another or not. Evolution had its own logic, and Apocalypse viewed it as an omnipotent god, which would inevitably produce the most perfect specimens if it were allowed to run its course. His mission was simply to get the ball rolling, to increase the evolutionary advantage of being a warrior as opposed to a poet or a fisherman. To start wars and chaos and to weed out the chaff with them. This would produce heaven on earth. The actual nature of this heaven, and the nature of the evolved beings that would inhabit it, were as of yet unknown. But Apocalypse took on faith that whatever world turning natural selection in favor of the warrior would result in would be perfect.

Sinister, on the other hand, deplored bigotry unless he could control it. He had no qualms about genocide. He just didn't believe that it was productive unless it was controlled so as to make certain that the right people were targeted. He believed that there were superior and inferior people, but their potential for power was the deciding factor. Death camps and the like were too random. The superior would only have marginally better chances than the inferior, and the killings would only marginally improve the species. Far better to use science to determine a person's likely potential rather than to test them in a trial by fire that they might fail by accident. Of course, some trials by fire were necessary to establish a base by which to estimate the power of various mutants. And sometimes such a trial needed to be added once a mutant had passed other screenings. But to just encourage people to kill each other and to see what happens? Stupidity. Or madness. He saw evolution as random, and believed that what the world needed was not a resignation to blind fate ultimately creating an ill-defined paradise whose shape could not be discerned but whose perfection was taken on faith, but rather a vision for what the perfect world should be and a determination to rebuild the world in a particular image. 

Yet the FOH served his ends as well. Such hatred would help to drive mutants to him, or to drive governments to send their mutants to him, in hopes of neutralizing them humanely, or in hopes of turning them into mind-controlled slaves, so that controlled mutants could hunt renegades for them. Moreover, the more people were afraid of mutants, the more value the government would see in using mutants as weapons against foreign countries, again bringing to him more test subjects.

Of course, Sinister would need to be cautious as to how he did this. His existence was already known to at least a few people in the government, and so he couldn't risk taking their mutants in without creating a dummy corporation and covering his tracks well. But he had already done that and was preparing for his next move.

And the FOH kept paving the way for him.


	7. Tricks and Countertricks

****

Chapter 7 Tricks and Countertricks

[A/N some one-sided Juggitty in this chapter! I am assuming Kurt to be a seniot and Kitty a junior in this fic, as it is about two years after the beginning of the series. Scott was therefore a junior at the start of XME, although I am not certain that that is series canon].

It was Thanksgiving morning. Rogue was in the danger room with Scott and Remy, charging cards, having borrowed a little of Remy's powers. Only, she had borrowed them and Scott's powers at the same time, and was turning the cards red with energy instead of yellow. They were quite effective at destroying things, but would they be effective against Sinister?

Rogue charged one up partway, not enough to cause serious damage, and then threw it at Scott. Scott took the explosion, and surprisingly enough was not fazed by it.

"Try it again, but throw it somewhere else in the Danger Room," instructed Scott.

Rogue threw it at a target, which was immediately blown backwards with a little smoking black spot left on it.

"So I am pretty much immune to those cards," smiled Scott. "So their effect is much like my optic blasts. So they should be able to hurt Sinister."

Kitty for her part was indulging in a lot of fantasizing about Cain. She knew that she had just turned seventeen and was too young for him, but she had such a crush on him. She had been told, though, to stay away from him. Cain made it perfectly clear that he was not a safe person to be around, and that he was currently so screwed up that he could nto be certain that he would not lose control at some point and try to smash everyone in the vicinity.

Nonetheless, Kitty kept writing "Kitty Marko" on her notebook. Her eyes began to glaze over as she indulged in daydreams about riding horses with him, or about him in a torn shirt holding her in a torn dress - darn she had seen too many paperback novels with Fabio on the cover.

School had been interesting, especially since the Brotherhood had been let back in. Strangely enough, Principal Kelly had been more subdued this year. For the most part, students were either fascinated by the mutants or afraid of them, and very few had tried to bully them. Kurt's half-brother had disappeared, and no one knew where he had gone, which was a bit of a relief, because Kitty had been afraid that he would have helped Principal Kelly to get them in some sort of trouble.

As it turned out, though, Kelly had been so busy on his campaign for the mayorship, that he had forgotten to worry about mutants. There had already been an anti-mutant candidate in the race, and so Kelly figured that he'd do better to avoid the controversial issues and to stick to things that most people would agree on, like property tax reform. Being the only candidate who was not affiliated with one or more of the richer families in Bayville, he was the only one who had been willing to pursue it. And this way, he could stick it to the mutants, anyway, as they all lived in the big mansion whose taxes would triple under the new system. The Brotherhood wouldn't be affected, unfortunately, but then you can't have everything.

And Kelly had been elected. So currently he was too busy getting ready to leave the school and to take up his new position to spend any time persecuting mutants. He'd save that for when he had real power. 

So things were good for Kitty. And in two years she'd be of age and then she would go out with Juggernaut and prove to him that she was the one.

Kitty went back to her daydream of riding horses with Juggernaut. Suddenly she realized that Juggernaut's horse would probably be crushed under his weight. She then re-imagined his horse to be a genetically altered Hulk-horse. So they were riding along a beach. Like, cliche to the max!

Piotr and Freddy were cooking dinner, as the Brotherhood had been invited over. Wanda was "having a polite conversation" with Kurt, which apparently meant that they were comparing notes in some sort of competition to see whose father was worse.

Talia was playing Centipede on an old Atari 2600 [A/N They are the best!], and racking up a high score. 

So when the message came over the Professor's real-time audio-visual two-way communications feed, it broke the mood rather abruptly. The Professor had taken to leaving it on and to allow the video-intercoms in the house to automatically switch on whenever a message came through, so the message just appeared suddenly.

"Hello, X-Men. Whoever is there, please respond." Everyone gathered, and the Professor said, "go ahead." 

"I am the Red Skull. I have Kurt's mother. If you want her alive, send me Kurt. My son apparently has been corrupted by Gypsies. I will not have him degraded by contact with inferior and verminous races. If you wish to come rescue her, here are the coordinates. Come and try to get her. I dare you."

No tricks, apparently. No subtlety. The Red Skull had simply offered a challenge and an ultimatum. He must have thoroughly expected that he could defeat the X-Men in a head-on attack.

Then suddenly, Mystique appeared on screen. "Kurt," she whispered, "I have escaped. Please, don't believe the Red Skull. Don't go after him. But I am too weak to get back to the mansion. I managed to get to Larson's Woods, just a few hundred feet from the Skull's hideout, and I am hiding from him quite well. I managed to steal one of his communicators. I can transform into an animal if I have to, I think, and hide. But I can't do it for long. I am near the old bridge right by Gifford's Stream." Kurt knew the place. "But the place is crawling with the Red Skull's men, so be careful." The transmission ended.

"I vill get her," whispered Kurt as soon as the connection was severed. "I can get in and out vithout being noticed."

"Wait," said Xavier, but Kurt had already bamfed away.

Kurt used four 'ports to get him to where he wanted to be. Then he was hit by some sort of electricity, and he fell, unconscious.

Valkyrie spoke into her walkie-talkie. She was seven feet tall, could lift over twenty tons, and could run at speeds approaching seventy miles an hour for a short time. "I have your son."

"Bring him here."

The Red Skull looked at Mystique. A medium height man with black, pupil-less eyes stared back at him.

"Well done, Exchange. Your power is among the most impressive. Only the Nordic people could produce such a fine specimen of mutant as yourself."

Mystique grimaced. "What happened?"

"Exchange has the power to cause two people to exchange - 'souls' for lack of a better term. If he touched two people at once, then they switch souls for, oh, say, an hour or so. Unless he touches them again, in which case he switches them back before that. So I was you. So your son is here. So my son is here, to be taught to be a good, Aryan German and to uphold the principles of racial purity and Nordic supremacy."

"Have you ever considered," spat out Mystique, "that 'racially pure' is just a fancy way of saying 'inbred?'"

"If your genes aren't faulty, you shouldn't fear inbreeding," sneered the Skull.

"They will come for you!" hissed Mystique.

"No, because I gave them the wrong coordinates. I am not a moron, you know. I only made my threat and had 'you' tell them I was lying so that would be too engrossed in uncovering my previous deception to notice 'your' deception. I mean, that you had escaped and needed picking up was so transparently false that there is no way that they would have believed it without me creating a decoy deception, namely that I was claiming to have you when you had supposedly escaped."

~Mystique. There is a pyramid in the Shansi province of China. Tell the Red Skull that you can give him access to its secrets if he releases you and Kurt.~ Apocalypse was once again in Mystique's head.

"Johann," whispered Mystique. She hoped to get the Red Skull's attention by using his real name.

"Yes, Amalthea?"

"It's Raven now."

"Yes, Raven."

"Please," she pleaded, "let me go. I know something and I'll give you the information freely if you free me and my son."

"What do you know?"

"I can tell you how to find a pyramid in China. It has..."

~Great technology.~

"...great technology."

~It can be used to enhance one race.~

"It can be used to enhance one race."

~And to make the Aryans even more superior than they are now.~

"And to make the Aryans even more superior than they are now."

~And the Wachukus as well, and any other races which are wise enough to side with the Aryans.~

" And the Wachukus as well, and any other races which are wise enough to side with the Aryans." 

The Red Skull looked intrigued. He turned to Mr. Mbakama. "Upload, forget about Dr. Chamberlain for a few minutes. I want to know if Mystique over hear is telling the truth."

"Yes, comrade." Mr. Mbakama always referred to the Red Skull as "comrade." Not so much because he was a communist, per se, but because he hated the Red Skull's smug superior attitude and even more so hated the fact that the Red Skull considered Europeans to be superior to Africans. He had been taught from a young age that the Wachukus were not just the superior tribe of their area, but rather the greatest people in the world, and it was only their naivete that had allowed them to be conquered by European powers during the colonial age. He thought of himself as using the Red Skull, much as the Red Skull was using him, and believed that as soon as the Luseths were defeated, his people would take all of Africa, and then the new Nazi Europe would be made to grovel at Africa's feet rather than the converse. Like the Red Skull, he had no interest in conquering the other's continent. He was pleased to let the Skull have Europe and northern Asia, and to let some Asian group have the rest of Asia, while he conquered only Africa (the Middle East, he figured would be split among the three powers). However, he saw Africa as the dominant power in the relationship, much as the Red Skull saw Europe as the dominant power.

In any case, the Red Skull had insisted that those who worked for him called him "sir," or "master." Mr. Mbakama, however, was too proud to do that, and he also knew that the Red Skull needed his services. So he insisted on making certain that the Red Skull knew that he saw the Nazi as an equal, not as his better (in reality, he saw him as his inferior, but was discreet enough not to say so). So "comrade," it was. Of course, when speaking to those of his inferiors whom he was not currently serving, he would call them whatever struck his fancy and make them call him "master." Power had its privileges.

So Upload walked over and opened the door of Mystique's prison. He lifter her head up and looked into her eyes. She reeled and became disoriented as he began reading her mind. Then he suddenly became disoriented. Apocalypse had taken control.

"The pyramid is in the Shansi province of China," said Upload. "I will write out the directions."

"We will send Xian Chung. I am too busy here to deal with it right now," said the Skull.

~That will be fine for now. If he works for the Skull, he will still help us make our alliance.~ The voice was in Upload's head now.

"Yes, comrade."

"Xian Chung?"

"He is my ally in Asia. A mutant with the ability to create a subspace pocket to store things in. His name is Pocket [A/N original character]." The Red Skull smiled. Pocket was in a position of power in the Chinese government, and was set to stage a coup when the time was right. China would finally stop concerning itself with silly things like trade and the production of civilian goods and take it upon itself to conquer all of non-Russian Asia. The Japanese had proven unworthy allies. The Chinese would hopefully be much better. But first he would have to make certain that their government was prepared for all-out war. Despite the scuffles between China and the US over foreign policy, and the obvious desire to reunite with Taiwan, the Red Skull doubted that China had the grand expansionist vision that he had for them, or that many Americans feared it had. India, Southeast Asia, Australia and Indonesia. China had the troops, now if could just get the will he was certain he could make them the dominant power in the region. And he felt that Xian Chung would be the leader to do that for them. So he needed to arrange a coup d'etat so that the current government would truly become the conquering Fascist menace that so many Americans feared it was.

But for now he was content to contact his ally in China and to relay the coordinates to him and to tell him what to do. Upload was typing all the necessary information furiously into the computer.

Mystique smiled slightly, against her will. "Mission accomplished," she whispered.


	8. Pietro and Slayer

****

Chapter 8 Pietro and Slayer

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it. 

A/N: The reason I have been able to post a chapter or so every day was because I waited to post the story until I had most of it written out. I would have posted it all at once, as I did with the previous stories, but I discovered that doing so means that your story is not on the first two pages for more than a day, if at all. So I've posted a chapter a day for about a week. The point is, after the next chapter (the last one for this story), I may take a week or more to post the next story in the series. This story, you should realize, is like part one of a two-parter. So don't expect everything to be resolved at the end.

King-Cold: Juggernaut only impregnated Ms. Dexter in late August/early September. Sinister has not yet been able to speed up the maturation of the fetus, so the baby is still waiting to be born].

Witch-Uk: Thank you for reviewing. I hope you get to update soon, as well.

Pietro Maximoff had followed Kurt to Larson's woods once he realized that he recognized the spot to which Kurt was heading. He managed to evade capture and kept following the large blonde woman who was carrying Kurt.

He was surprised to be alive, to tell the truth. When Sinister had originally captured him in the Himalayas, he had thought that he would be killed for sure. Apparently Sinister had planned to do a more thorough interrogation later to see if he could find out anything useful, and when the X-Men had attacked, he had simply been left behind by Sinister. But he wasn't one to question good fortune.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anyone, Sinister had managed to discover the location of the Red Skull via the internet. He had looked for chat rooms with the name "Zimalover" in them, remembering that to be the screen handle of one of his contacts, a Baron Zemo, the son of the infamous Nazi Baron Zemo. He had discovered that there were a bunch of conversations between him and a "99 Luftballoons," and had concluded the man in question to be none other than the Red Skull. So he had sent Slayer to track him down and to see what he was up to.

A twelve-year-old girl (ten really, but she looked twelve) who had landed near to the Red Skull's hideout, a cave that had been converted into a laboratory/living space by the Skull's allies long ago, and which had been updated occasionally. She saw the German Amazon walk into an entrance carrying Kurt and began debating with herself what to do.

She finally decided that she ought to do is to find a way in and then to see if she could capture Kurt herself. Kurt would be almost as good to capture as Talia. Sinister could always hold him for ransom or try to breed him with other mutants to create stranger and more powerful mutations.

Pietro for his part scooted in as the door began to close after Valkyrie. 

She was fast, but not as fast as he was, and he managed to run down the hallway and get hidden in a corner at the near end of a large laboratory-like room before anyone could see him. 

Hiding in a corner, he overheard the Red Skull talking to a man in Chinese. He had no idea what they were talking about. Kurt had been taken to another room, and Pietro wasn't certain that he could move around the room easily without being noticed. So he let Kurt be taken out of his line-of-sight.

Meanwhile, Slayer began to pick at the door lock, which was, strangely enough, entirely mechanical. No computers to fool with, she'd just pick the lock with some paperclips she had with her.

Pietro noticed that Mystique was rather groggy. He began considering his options for freeing her, and decided right then and there to wait for the rest of the X-Men to pick up on the homing device he had taken.

"So, any more surprises?" asked Mystique to the Red Skull. "So far, your allies are Upload, Valkyrie, Exchange, and your man in China, Pocket. Three allies here, one abroad. Anyone else I should know about?"

"Would I tell you if there were?" Suddenly the Red Skull looked at her almost fondly. "You know, you are very attractive. It doesn't have to be like this, with the cages. If, if you trusted me more, I could..."

"No. Don't ever touch me again."

"That may not be an option. Not if we are to produce the fine specimens that I know you to be capable of producing. Kurt needs more full brothers and sisters."

"I will kill you first. Or myself. Or I will find some way to insure that I can never have children again."

"Like you did to your son?"

"What?" Mystique was shocked.

"Your son. Your other son. I know about how you abused Graydon. Made him feel worthless and then injected him with a disease so he would not pollute the gene pool with his inferior genes. Much like I would have done had I had a child with a woman I found out to be a Jew."

Mystique winced. She had always thought herself better than this war criminal. I mean, at least her hatred had reason, right? Wild-types hated mutants passionately. And unless taught their place, they would oppress them. It was kill or be killed. Her actions were much more in tune with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising than with Kristalnacht. And yet, the uprisers had not tried to wipe out large numbers of German civilians or to abuse German kids. They had merely defended themselves against those who would destroy them. Was she as much of a monster as the man sitting across the room from her?

"It's a pity, really. Sabertooth is not entirely a pureblooded Norseman, but his other genes come form similar nearly-supreme races. Graydon Creed would have made a fine addition to my followers, had his hatred not been erroneously directed against those with superior genes instead of against inferior races. Maybe he can be salvaged."

Suddenly an alarm sounded.

"Der teufel! [A/N "The devil!" Any of you read Tintin? It's Dr. Muller's favorite curse in the three stories in which he appears]" said the Red Skull. "Someone is trying to pick the lock outside."

Slayer had given up all hope of the stealth approach and simply blasted the door with her eyes. She walked into the corridor.

The Red Skull had, fortunately, been prepared for just such a contingency. He had so far revealed three mutant henchman/allies working inside the base, Upload, Valkyrie, and Exchange, in addition to his mutant friends abroad, of whom only one, Pocket, was known. But he had one last card to play.

A large, blond man walked out of a side room. He had on a uniform like Captain America's but all red, with large circles of white on the chest, with swastikas in them.

"I have perfected the secret to Project Rebirth!" he cackled. "I can now create superhuman soldiers who do not age, nor do they suffer the same cellular breakdown as my nemesis! Meet Hauptmann Deutschland!"

"Captain Germany? But Germany long ago rejected you!" screamed Mystique.

"When they realized what I offer, they will come begging for the Fourth Reich to begin! Or else they will die!"

Slayer stepped into the laboratory, and aimed at the Red Skull.

Hauptmann Deutschland jumped in front of the Red Skull and took the shot. It knocked him back a little, but he was mostly unhurt. 

"Did I mention that I have improved on the original formula? This one is impervious to bullets, and to your laser blasts! And he has an adamantium shield to deal with everything else!" Indeed, the shield had the swastika motif, in some sort of twisted attempt to adapt the Captain America motif to the Nazi flag.

"Very original!" spat out Mystique. "You can only ape your enemies, Johann?"

The Red Skull laughed, and he looked at Upload. "Transfer all data to the beta site computer. Now. Then meet me in Kurt's room!"

Valkyrie rushed in and grabbed the cage with Dr. Chamberlain, dragging it into the far hallway (opposite the hallway leading outside to the entrance).

"You don't seem confident that you'll defeat me," said Slayer to Hauptmann Deutschland. "You are retreating."

Hauptmann Deutschland just smiled at her. She took off her goggles and opened her eyes on him. The full concussive force of the blasts threw him back into the computers, which began to smoke.

"Damn!" hollered Upload. He looked at the screen "Transfer 60% complete." He had to make certain that Slayer didn't destroy the computers before everything was uploaded. He took out a gun from his belt and shot at her.

Slayer's right shoulder burst in a spurt of blood. The next shot was aimed at her heart. Then suddenly, Upload didn't have his gun anymore.

Quick as a wink, Hauptmann Deutschland reached out and caught Pietro by the leg. "Dirty Gypsy!"

"Transfer 80% complete," displayed the screen. Pietro, thinking quickly, put the gun to the man's eye and pulled the trigger. 

Bulletproof the man may have been under normal conditions, but that would not save him from a point-blank range shot to the eye. Hauptmann Deutschland grabbed his left eye and doubled over in pain. "Transfer 90% complete."

Pietro raced over to the computer, only to be thrown back by Valkyrie. "No, you don't."

Slayer got up and was about to fire when Deutschland got up and oushed his shield in front of her face. She opened her eyes all the way, but optic blasts do not hurt adamantium, although it was rapidly pushed away from her.

"Transfer 100% complete."

"Come on!" shouted the Red Skull's voice. "We're off to get Zemo! Get Mystique if you can!"

Hauptmann Deutschland jogged to Mystique's cage, but Pietro got their first. He had taken the keys off of Upload's belt, and after dodging Valkyrie for a few seconds, managed to reach the cage and unlock it. He grabbed away Deutschland's shield, allowing Slayer to pummel him with green optic blasts.

"Leave her! We'll get her back later!" hollered the Skull's voice.

Valkyrie, Upload, and Hauptmann Deutschland ran into the far hallway and joined the Red Skull, Dr. Chamberlain, Kurt Wagner, and Exchange. Pietro made it to the door just in time to see them all touch Kurt's body and to teleport away.

He heard a large helicopter take off. Then he realized that the cave was set to self-destruct. He ran to the main lab, grabbing Slayer and transporting her outside, and then going back in to similarly rescue Mystique.

Just then the X-Heli came into view. A large, four-rotor helicopter rose out of the nearby woods. It had Nazi markings on it. A tremendous laser blast hit the X-Heli, and caused it to crash land. 

Pietro was going to get Slayer to blast the helicopter, but she was unconscious, the bullet to the shoulder finally getting to her. The helicopter itself rose higher and higher, and displaying unnatural speed, disappeared into the distance. How it could move so fast was anyone's guess. Just then, the woods near the entrance to the secret base exploded, destroying the entire underground structure.

Pietro quickly picked Slayer up, ran to the X-Men, who had gotten ourt of the X-Heli unharmed, and then ran back to retrieve Mystique.

"We gotta find them!" hollered Pietro. "They have Kurt!"

"No." Professor X suddenly looked very pained. "We cannot right now. We need a plan. The Red Skull has too many allies, and with Apocalypse on the loose and Sinister after Talia, we can't just run off to find him. We have to figure out a way to stop all of them."

"We will go and find him ourselves," said Magneto, with Wolverine nodding in ascent. Magneto lifted them both off of the ground. "We will report back later." They left in the direction of the Red Skull's helicopter.

"I can help with Sinister," stated Pietro, pointing at Slayer. "She was there. She helped to rescue Mystique and nearly rescued Kurt. Maybe she can tell us where Sinister is."

"Not willingly," said Mystique. "She is still loyal to Sinister, and probably wanted to rescue Kurt for his sake. I... I have to agree with Xavier. We need to come up with a plan. The Red Skull won't hurt Kurt. He is his son."

So they went back to the mansion have Thanksgiving Dinner, and to plot their vengeance.


	9. NonResolutions

****

Chapter 9: Non-Resolutions

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it.

A/N Hauptmann Deutschland was originally an original character, although he will take the name of a character (Captain Axis) that already exists in the Marvel Universe in this chapter. I think I may wind up basing his XME version loosely on the comics character, as was done with Amanda Sefton and Arcade.

Merith Essex, aka Ms. Dexter, put her hand over her head. Her advanced genetic structure helped her to avoid morning sickness, but not migraines. 

"Slayer has been captured, Father."

"Yes, I see that." Mr. Sinister looked at his female clone. "We will get her back. But I do have several clonal embryos of her. In case we cannot find her again, we will need to begin growing her clone." He looked away, then back at his "daughter," and asked "do we have any suitable mothers?"

"I will find one from one of the orphanages we donate to."

"Whoever she is, make certain that she has a sexual experience with some boy first. We don't want a virgin birth, or anything else that can arouse suspicion. She needs to think the baby is hers."

"Of course."

"Speaking of which, how is the little Juggernaut junior?"

"Hungry, apparently. I require three times as much nourishment as normal."

"So your pregnancy is?"

"Progressing as expected."

"I have been thinking. Maybe we should make a female clone of Apocalypse. She would be a suitable queen for me, and our child could be the most powerful superbeing of all time. The strongest mutant and the strongest non-mutant's genes in one package."

"And me?"

"You would be the Princess. The Princess of Heaven on Earth. The only problem is that Heaven cannot exist until the current order is destroyed. On that, En Sabah Nur agree. That's why he chose the name Apocalypse."

"Pardon?"

"Apocalypse is the Greek word for 'Revelation.' As I understand it, in the book of Revelation, the world must undergo plagues and be destroyed before the new world can be revealed. Pure myth, of course [A/N not my opinion, I am a Christian myself. My version of Sinister, however, is a deist, who believes in some sort of God, but not in any sort of personal God who intervenes in life]. However, the idea was correct, and so En Sabah Nur has chosen a literary reference as his new name."

"And you?"

"I was married once, and my wife died in childbirth, and my son immediately afterward. She died in horror after hearing of my plans for a super-evolved world. I wanted to hasten the perfection that I saw evolution as bringing, and I did experiments that were - unpopular with the unwashed masses. The last words she spoke were 'Your motives are sinister, Nathan. Stop before it is too late.' So I did what modern-day homosexuals did with the word 'queer.' I appropriated it and turned it into a positive statement of my vision."

"And does my name have any significance?"

"Merith? A character from a movie I like. Krull."

"My other name."

"Sinister means 'left' in Latin. It took on negative connotations because the left was considered bad and the right, good. I called you Ms. Dexter more or less as a pun on my own name."

"I see. Ah. Here's a good candidate to use to grow another Slayer."

"Excellent."

Apocalypse stood before the Eye. He had been improved. He now looked almost robotic, as opposed to the Pharoah-like appearance he had upon his release. The tubes connecting his wrists to his belt helped to connect him to the technology with which he had wrapped himself. It would not be long before all of the pyramids would be turned on, and he could activate the mutagenic properties of the Eye to full power. Everyone with a X-gene, maybe 1-2% of the population [A/N, not 50%, as the TV show implied], would get it activated by the Eye and would become mutants. The rest would die, be mutated in horrible ways. A few might survive, those with other special genes. Unfortunately, they would not be enhanced the way that the Nasty Boys had been. But the ensuing wars would make certain that the technology for enhancing mutations would be developed and used. And only the strong would survive.

The Red Skull got out of his helicopter and entered the castle in a remote location in the Alps. He had managed to teleport back at his base by having his consciousness swapped with Nightcrawler's for a few seconds, courtesy of Exchange.

Hauptmann Deutschland had been renamed "Captain Axis" after the Red Skull realized that Germany was no longer worthy of being admired. He would have to reengineer the country back to its glorious past first. Until then, his prized creation would need to be named in honor of the past, not the present.

A man with a red hood greeted the Red Skull at the door.

"Guten tag, Helmut."

Baron Zemo nodded. "Guten Tag, Herr Schmidt."

Kurt had an inhibitor collar on. A new device produced by the Skull, similar to the necklace created by Forge for Wanda. He was led by Upload into the castle.

"I can make the bio-weapons you desire, Herr Schmidt."

"Excellent."

"And I have another weapon idea for you."

"What?"

"A telepathic weapon capable of destroying continents. I can base it on technology known to young Herr Wagner's friends. Cerebro."

"What do you mean?"

"We make a copy of Cerebro, and with a powerful enough telepath, we can kill anyone or any group of people on the plant that we choose, up to two million in an hour [A/N Cerebro is a lot less powerful than in the movie]."

"What telepath is that strong?"

"George Tarleton. Agent of the terrorist organization AIM."

"I seem to remember the name. AIM is part of HYDRA, is it not?"

"Yes. But his name isn't the memorable thing. Remember his face. It is about 90% of his body."

"Excuse me?"

"He is the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. MODOK. And he will used for exactly that purpose."

"Intriguing."

"But that will come later. First, to get the rest of the information from Dr. Chamberlain. And then to incorporate it into my viruses." 

Dr. Malloy was running. A blonde woman in white and a cloaked demon were following him.

Suddenly the blonde woman jumped in front of him. "Do you like sensory overload?" she asked. A bright yellow dagger appeared in her hand and she threw it into him. He collapsed, paralyzed but conscious.

"Tyrone?" she spoke to the cloaked demon.

"Yes, Tandy?"

"Shall we kill this parasite."

"Yes, let's."

"Who are you?" shuddered Dr. Malloy.

The blonde looked at him in disgust. "Do you remember when Silvermane tried to create a new drug to replace heroin? All of his test subjects died."

"All but two, they escaped," winced the doctor.

The darker of the two beings replied. "They are we. Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson. She is now Dagger. I am Cloak. And you also try to make new drugs to hurt people. So you will die."

J. Jonah Jameson and Peter Parker were at the _Bugle_, comparing notes. "Excellent, Peter my lad," exclaimed Jameson. "This is what real heroism is about. Maybe you ought to try this more often, and be a real hero, rather than simply taking photos of hot-dogging vigilantes who think they are heroic. We have their pictures and their names, and we'll blow this lemonade stand to the ground! This reminds me of the old days, taking on the Mafia."

Parker steeled himself for a long, long reverie that the owner of the _Bugle_ was about to go into. Although he had always been resentful of Jameson, he was beginning to see the man in a new light. Sure the man was prejudiced against Spider-Man and could be a grade-A jerk. But he cared about people and wanted to make the world a better place. Her wasn't just about amassing money and power, despite his constant attempts to exploit stories for readership. In fact, sometimes it seemed as if Mr. Jameson wanted the money primarily to fund things he believed in. In any case, he was more complex than Parker had given him credit for. Perhaps rather than trying to convert him to Spider-Man's side, Parker needed to look at Jameson in a different light, and to see the positive things that were there already. 

Graydon Creed was surfing the internet. He couldn't help the feeling that he had seen Charles Overton before. He was looking through newspaper clippings, on-line magazines, anything. He was looking through the _Daily Bugle's_ on-line edition.

"Hello, what is this?" He looked at a picture of the staff. "Strange, if you took away the moustache, made the nose a little smaller... oh no. Oh no."

He picked up the phone and called the leader of his chapter. "Hello, Mr. McBain [A/N original character]. We have a problem."

Xian Chung walked up to the pyramid. He was a rather non-descript Asian man, of average height, weight, and build, neither skinny nor fat. He wore a business suit, as he always did, being a very formal person. Having been blessed with near-perfect eyesight, he wore no glasses. He pulled a long staff from his shirt sleeve, a staff much, much longer than the sleeve itself.

"So I need to tap in this pattern here." He did so, and a door opened.

"Let us see what is inside."

Back at the X-Mansion, dinner was over. Talia was wondering why her Daddy was away, and all Wanda could do was tell her that he'd be back soon.

Mystique had talked to Professor X, and admitted her connection to Apocalypse. It had taken three hours, but he had manager to sever the link. 

Late that night, Xavier let out a mental call.

"Raven, Cain, Kris [A/N Slab]. Come here."

"What do you want?" asked Mystique.

"I think we are in over our heads. We need help. I didn't want us to have to become a paramilitary unit, but we may have to, temporarily. Logan left a number."

"Mystique smiled. So Magneto was right. A war is brewing."

"Maybe. But not between us and wild types. A war against bigots and tyrants of all stripes. But we need help."

"So?" 

"So it is time that we contact SHIELD."

FINIS


End file.
